A few days ago, I was involved in the intermediate class of modern jive (also called ceroc). Well, it's called 'jive' and it shares something common with the international jive but not quite the same, it is more like a mix of all dances with a bigger share on the six-count jitterbug. Anyway, it should not be difficult to learn (yes, easy to learn, just hard to perfect) if we know the basis of dancing.
Here I would like to give some brief ideas about the basic and the basis of dancing, then give some tips for girls on how to achieve the moves in our Thursday's intermediate/advance routine at the end of the blog entry (the 9th paragraph).
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The basic of any kind of dancing could be the first 7-8 figures in the syllabus, and in short, most teachers will say the 'basic', which itself is actually a figure, is the basic. However, the basis of dancing could only be just a few actions.
To be able to dance, one needs to walk properly. Walk is not only a causal walk, it's an action which demands the dancer to initiate inner thigh muscles to commence the walk with correct footwork (ball, heel, ball flat, heel flat, flat) at correct beat (1234 or & or a) using correct timing (Q or S). Once the walk is managed accurately, it would be easy to enrich it with delay walk or check walk, or even chasse whose a very quick check walk in between steps at syncopated timing.
A more experienced dancer would spend more time on actions like swivels, spins, three step turns and points, which are widely used in most Latin dances, not only the international style. A lot of masters have already pinpointed the importance of the walk, now if you have ever carefully examined the world class dancers' performance, you probably cannot identify the figures. Instead, you will find them the walks with the mentioned actions. These actions are combined and re-organized and embedded in the basic walks in order to compose a dance.
And behind all these fundamental actions, we have something called technique in order to back up the actions. To simply everything in one, I'll say that's the weight placement- place the correct amount of weight to the correct foot at the correct timing. You must be bored with this as I have been talking this for too many times, luckily I am not going to talk much on this here now.
Although these actions are essential if you want to spice up your dance, without a sound technique, they will not be perfectly presented. Since the dance should be purposefully choreographed in order to interpret the music as well as interpret your personality, without a solid base of technical knowledge which is a complex of musicianship, sport science, physical strength, and artistic presentation, one can never reach the top.
So in short, keen dancers, I would really like to suggest you to work more on actions. Now if you can understand all these basics and basis, please examine the routine again.
The first move in the routine is 'first move to shoulder-check-lean', girls should do a step back and replace, when pivoting in to the first move position, make a small step back with your outer foot. If you want to be very stylish, stretch the upper body even upper, and sink the bottom to the floor since this should actually be a bone action. When the instructor said pivot the lady out, lady actually make a quick replace to the LF and pivot on that, and once the the pivot is done, the weight is swiftly sent to the other foot so that you can be turned out back to the FTF position. These are all in compact action doing in a very fast pace, but they are all basic actions. Lady then repeat more or less the same foot actions and allow the man to put you to the lean position. If lady can mind the weight change in every step, it would be a great help for the man to manage his lead. Once you are in the lean position, lady could make her own style, in this routine I slid up my left leg and kicked it out when resuming to the floor action.
The second is a knee-winder. For girls who know what is a spiral turn, it is an extremely easy move. It is in fact an overturned spiral turn. Same as all other Latin dances, lady makes a LF back then replace to the RF. Now weight should all be on the RF, as you are turned by your man, keep the weight on RF and keep your whole body straight up, let the LF be dragged as you are turned and it will be in a spiral like twisting around your RF. Let it be twisted around your RF and be turned without freeing your hands from your man, until you are stopped by your man and feel a push down from your hands, and you should give a natural response which is just bend your knees and sit on your man's knee.
The third is pot stir. This looks cool and IS cool absolutely! It is not as hard as you think but just demand you a basic spinning technique. You will be swayed in and twisted, the twist actually gives you a momentum to be pushed down to the squat. Once you are in the squat, mind carefully that you are all on the ball of your LF and that the RF bears no weight. When you are being stirred in a clockwise direction, you need to keep the weight all on the same spot. Let the RF be dragged and be pulled at the first second as you start to spin, then at the first quarter turn of your spin, the RF will be in a crossed position, and you just mind the weight on the LF and do not be distracted by the dragging of the RF. At the same time, girl should tone up the arm muscle since we need a firm 'pot handle', keep it at a right angle up so the man can stir your easily. After the stir, stand up and make a support on the man's shoulder if it is needed (higher recommended if you are new to this).
The fourth is an optional chopper-lay-back. I will keep it short as this is just an optional move. As girl is being turned keep the L arm straight as you are chopping the man's neck (but no worry he will duck), and keep turning. You should feel him tighten you up and bend you backward. Give your natural response, which is laying back. To make it elegant, you need to be flexible.
There you go, very lengthy description (ar... not as lengthy as my lecturer's), it will be easier to do it than to just read it. So dancers, do it but bear in mind that weight is nevertheless very important.
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